Leadership

                                                Integrity

                                                Noble

                                                Enthusiasm

                                                Mentor

                                                Excellence

                                                Never give up

“I’m an offensive lineman. You can put my grandmother back there and I don’t care, I want to be able to run the ball. That’s an offensive linemen’s attitude. I am not denying that some [running] backs are better than others, but we’ve got to take that challenge upon ourselves. If one of our backs goes out, we have to put it on our back and we’ve done a poor job of that.”

Sophomore offensive lineman Mason Walters on the mentality that the Texas offensive line needs going into the Holiday Bowl. Known for his fiery disposition and recently compared by Mack Brown to former Longhorn and all-around nasty dude Kasey Studdard, Walters is quickly becoming a leader along the line. Not to mention the most quotable.

“Linemen are literally the unsung heroes of the game. Their situation is analogous to the infantry in warfare. They do the hard, bitter fighting for victory. As the generals reap the headlines in war, the backs reap the headlines in football. Yet in their hearts, the generals and backs know that victory and the accolades came to them through the work of the footsoldiers and linemen.”

— Gomer Jones (Bud Wilkinson’s line coach at Oklahoma)

“We are offensive linemen, part of the o-line. Five guys working as a unit within the football team to establish the tempo and demeanor of the game. Our job description doesn’t sound fun, interesting or flashy, nor should it. Those who know football know the game is won or lost in the trenches, along the line. We start the play and if we are good we finish it. We are the O-Line, we set the examples, we “LEAD FROM THE FRONT.”

— Grey Ruegamer(Offensive lineman for the New York Giants)

Click Links to See Some Hogs destroying the Dogs!

Texas Tech Offensive Line Video

Green Bay Packers Offensive Line Video

Ole Miss Offensive Line Video

Nebraska Cornhuskers Offensive Line Video

Boston College O-Line Video

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As a running back some of the most important traits are awareness, speed, running ability and blocking ability to name a few and you also need to be intelligent in order to know the plays and understand your role on each and every play.

All of these aspects can be developed and there are a number of different things you can do to improve as a running back. Here some tips to help you do just that:

Notice Your Weaknesses

If you are able to watch back a tape of your performances then do so and make a note of where you are making mistakes. Maybe you are having trouble following your blockers or making the correct cuts when required. When you know and understand the areas you need to improve you are on the way to becoming a better running back. Ignoring criticism and problems is no way to develop as a player.

Define Your Style

Depending on your build and physical attributes you will be suited to a particular style of running. For example if you are a big and powerful build you will be much more suited to carrying the ball between the tackles whereas if you are a smaller, quicker player you will be better running to the outside and beating players with speed and agility rather than power. Make sure you know what your strengths are and play to them.

Work Hard in Drills

There are so many different drills designed to improve all the areas required to be a good running back. Rather than practicing full contact running, working through running back drills can be much more effective in helping you improve skills such as your ball control, agility, making cuts and awareness.

Work on Your Strength

When developing your strength training, don’t simply focus on one area of your body. If you build up upper body strength without working on your leg strength, then you aren’t going to develop as a running back. You need to work on getting stronger in the legs and the upper body and you will cause more problems to defenders.

Know Your Plays

Understanding the plays and knowing where you need to be following your blockers is a simple step to improving as a runner. Being organized and aware of what is going on will make it much easier for you to gain yards consistently.

Practice Catching

The running back position is not all about carrying the ball from the line of scrimmage. Being able to run routes and catch the ball downfield will make you a much more versatile and dynamic running back.

Practice Blocking

Occasionally you will not be involved as a playmaker during the game and you will be needed to protect the quarterback. Simply developing your blocking skills will make you a much more valuable running back and benefit you with more time on the field.

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WHAT IS MENTAL CONDITIONING?

Mental conditioning is a dynamic process of self-awareness and mental skills training that works to help performers and groups optimize thinking in order to optimize performance. Mental skills affect our performance whether we want them to or not. For example, in an intense pressure situation, confidence is going to be a key ingredient for success. So mental conditioning will help to ensure that we are better able to manage and maintain confidence in that clutch situation. 

For the individual performer:
It’s about going from good to great. More importantly, mental conditioning helps performers

1. Understand what their great looks like and what gets them there
2. Learn how to use mental training and preparation to get great performance more consistently
3. More effectively manage challenges, obstacles, and pressure

Essentially, it involves learning how to condition your mind to make sure you are able to do the right things at the right times in order to get your best performance no matter what the circumstances.
Getting your best performance requires working on and improving your mental game…how you prepare for, think about, react to, and evaluate performance situations. Mental  conditioning can help individual performers improve the quality, effectiveness, and  efficiency of their training  and performance.
Whether you’re trying to get back to the performance you once had (performance restoration) or improve your performance closer to your full potential (performance enhancement), mental conditioning gives you the tools to put you in a better position to succeed.

For groups and teams: 
Mental conditioning helps team members and leaders better understand the dynamics of the group and learn how to more effectively work together to achieve group goals. The goal is to help everyone get on the same page, which is essential if the team is going to reach and consistently perform up its full potential.
Some key areas of focus for groups include…

1. Outlining a clear and consistent vision, purpose, and identity for the group
2. Identifying group goals and plans to achieve them
3. Aligning individual goals and roles with the aims of the group
4. Resolving and working through conflict
5. Optimizing the group processes and system

THE TOP TEN THINGS WORLD CHAMPIONS KNOW THAT YOU DON’T

1. Acting Changes Everything (ACE) The ACE card that they have up their sleeve is a key weapon in the world champion’s toolbox. What does ACE stand for? ACE stands for Acting Changes Everything. Those athletes understand that they’re not athletes, they’re actors. See number two.

2. Force Yourself To Act Different Than How You Feel It is a lot easier to act yourself into feeling than it is to wait around and feel yourself into action. So if you are not confident, that is OK, just act confident, if you are scared, that is OK, just act as if you are not scared. The Karelian Bear Dog chases the grizzly bear not because he’s bigger or stronger, but because he believes he’s bigger and stronger.

3. Losing Is Not An Option World champions know that losing is not an option, it’s essential. In order for you to become a world champion, you’re going to lose. You’re going to lose because you’re competing against the best of the best. And when you get higher and higher in levels of competition, talent and physical skill means less and less because everyone has got it. It’s inevitable that we’ll eventually lose so know how you should respond when it happens. Learn from it and leave it. Failure is positive feedback.

4. Confidence Is A Choice Being a champion is also about learning how to respond when you are faced with adversity and how to respond when you don’t feel good. Do you respond with confidence? Remember confidence is a choice. You see, champions don’t wake up one day and say, “Mmm, well the sun and the moon and the stars are all lined up today, so I will be confident”. It doesn’t work that way with champions. Champions make the choice everyday to jump out of bed and be confident. They know their ‘ABCs’ are to ‘Always Behave Confidently’ because confidence is a choice.

5. What Will Other People Say? What Will Other People Think? There are ten deadly words that if you say them or believe them you will crush your performance. If you’re trying to be excellent, if you’re trying to get to the top of your field, if you listen to these ten deadly words, you are going to sabotage your career. Those ten deadly words are, “What will other people say? What will other people think?” It doesn’t matter what other people say. It doesn’t matter what other people think. In your pursuit of excellence, people are going to try and pull you down and talk trash about you because you are better than they are. When people stab you in the back or say things about you behind your back it is because you are in front of them. Be more concerned with your character, what you know is true than what other people say or think about you.

6. Champions Are Made, They’re Not Born Very few people are truly committed to the pursuit of excellence. Get used to looking yourself in the mirror, and answering to yourself. Because every night, when that head hits the pillow, that’s the person you’re going to answer to. Other people are going to tell you, you can’t do it. That you’re not big enough, fast enough or strong enough. Or even worse, you may be surrounded by a bunch of yes people who tell you that you’re the best when you are really quite average. You just can’t listen because champions know it doesn’t matter what people think because champions are made – they’re developed – they’re not born, and ANYONE can be a champion if they are committed to excellence and follow the fundamentals.

7. Motivation Is A Daily Decision To stay motivated, you’ve got to surround yourself with things that motivate you. Do you have a vision board posted in your office, room, car or locker that shows you what you want to accomplish? Consider this advertising to yourself. Coke and Pepsi are the two most famous soft drinks and that is largely due to the fact that they saturate the market and your head with advertising. You want to advertise to yourself on a daily basis with vision boards, photos of your next opponent, quotes or goals written on your bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker and by reading a little a lot from good books.

8. Your Time Is Now Your time is the present moment. 1984 Olympic gold medal winning Team USA Hockey Coach Herb Brooks said it best in the great movie; ‘Miracle’ when he said “Your time is now.” The time is now, the place is here. Your career is the sum of your today’s. The only factor that is the same amongst all baseball coaches in the world is that they have 86,000 seconds in a day to either spend or INVEST in the development of their potential. Maximize your time management and priority management skills and you will get the most out of your days.

9. Stop Counting Down The Days And Start Making Those Days Count World champions also know that you don’t count the days till the next fight, but make the days count. They set long term goals of where they want to be at the end of the year, but commit 100% to the days goal, to the here and now. They realize that yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift that’s why we call it the present. They live for today and get the most out of today because they know their career and life will be the sum of their today’s.

10. What’s Important Now Right now today. What are you going to do today to get better? What is your goal for today? Do you see a pattern developing here? Through out each day there are going to be distractions, fish hooks that rip you out of the water while you are searching for your goals. When you get side tracked, get off the wrong exit on your way to work, realize that you must get back in the moment. That winning is an end result that takes care of itself if you win the moment, you win the moment by remembering What’s Important Now!

The  BONUS eleventh thing that world champions know that you don’t is the Opponent Is You. Your toughest opponent in life will be to master yourself. And once you become a master of the mental game, you give yourself the best chance to become a champion.